discovering life
by mayamorse
Summary: follow Suzannah Black as she steps out of an unusual upbringing into the world of hogwarts, as she discovers her life, her true self and her first friends in the magical world..
1. Chapter 1

Discovering life...

By Suzannah black

Chapter 1: the birthday.

Far away in an inaccessible part of the world, away from the prying eyes of curious humans stood a huge, stone fort. The tall stone walls were lightly lined with moss, showing very subtle signs of age. Through the main gate was the large expanse of land devoted to a beautiful garden, decorated with small fountains and flowers of every kind; across the lawn stood a beautiful stone castle. Somewhere inside the castle in a luxurious suite's sitting area, a girl was sitting on a sofa in front of the fire, reading a book. The girl had long raven black wavy hair that almost reached her waist. She had a very pale complexion, unnaturally so.

The girl's name was Suzannah black.

She lived in the corvinous isle with her uncle and aunt and Cousin. Lord Marcus corvinous was the headmaster of the academy well known throughout the magical world as the best institute for advanced researches and studies of obscure branches of magic. His wife, lady Claudia corvinous was a well-known scholar of the mind arts. She specialized on the art of ambient magicks. Suzannah was eagerly waiting for her 11th birthday which was less than 24 hours away. It was on that day the she would finally get her Hogwarts letter. In spite of the excitement of going to her father's old school, she was very nervous about leaving home for 10 months straight. It was an unsaid fact the she would not be able to return home during the Christmas vacations.

Claudia had been trying to cheer her niece since past week. It was seven days ago on the breakfast table that Suzannah had suddenly realized that she would be away from home for 10 months straight.

Don't misunderstand her, she was not dreading homesickness. She had attended a boarding school in India since she was 5 years old. She was dreading the unfamiliarity of the country. She had never been to Britain; the idea of spending the majority of her time in a previously unexplored territory was thoroughly unnerving to her. Marcus' absence was another negative factor. If there is one person on the planet that could convince Suzannah of anything, it was Marcus. He knew his niece inside out like the back of his hand.

Sitting on the sofa in her suite's sitting area, blankly staring at the herbology book she had taken from the library the previous day, Suzannah was planning emergency exits for every situation since the past one hour. She was pulled out of her musing by her private house elf Nancy, who had just apparated in front of her.

"Mistress Corvinous is calling young mistress for dinner." Nancy chirped in her light pitched voice. "She is telling young mistress to quickly come; Nancy is to take mistress to mistress."

Closing her book and glancing at the large grandfather's clock on her side, Suzannah yawned lightly. Turning to her elf, she said, "I'll be there shortly."

Then she stood up and stretched her muscles, put on her slippers and left her quarters for having dinner with her aunt. On reaching the dining hall, she spotted her aunt arranging presents in one side of the huge dining table. Claudia was a beautiful woman who looked to be in her early thirties. She married Marcus around five years ago. She had long chocolate brown straight hair that went well past her shoulders. Her light brown eyes were currently focusing on the huge pile of gifts, her hands moving accordingly in order to make sure that the packets do not fall off the pile.

She turned around to see her niece had already taken her seat. She was still wearing that very serious expression on her face. Sighing, she took her seat across the table, directly facing Suzannah.

"Still having second thoughts? You know you don't have to go if you don't want to go." Claudia said, picking up her goblet to drink some water.

"It's just that it is an entirely new territory. I want to go to Hogwarts. I want to connect with my parents' past. It's just that I'll be all alone there. Miera is going to gurukul tomorrow. And I cont even mail her for the next 2 years. She told me that younger students were not allowed to interact with outside world. And then it'll be 10 months before I get to see you and Marcus again." Suzannah replied. After her mini speech, she was feeling much lighter.

She looked at Claudia, who was still holding her goblet near her lips, and said," Dia, when would marc return?"

By then, the elves had served dinner to both the ladies.

"He should be back by next week. But I am not sure. This year's conference might take longer than usual to wrap up." Claudia replied.

"I see." Suzannah resumed eating.

"You don't know by any chance where that errant brother of yours is as of now, do you?" Claudia asked, completely off topic.

"I do, in fact. He left for Sunderbans yesterday to hunt for some old texts about some long dead form of runes." Suzannah replied smiling and resumed eating.

They silently finished their meal in the next 15 minutes. Finally, breaking the silence, Claudia pointed towards the gifts pile and said, "It looks like the entire staff of the academy and all your schoolmates have outdone themselves with birthday presents this year. I have already stored the sweets and other eatable for your school trip. There is a large collection of muggle clothes, master harlord has apparently crafted you a wand holster. It's a piece of art I must say. I think that tome on magical herbs is from Miss Cortnis. And the rest are general books of magical theories and history."

Suzannah was browsing through her birthday gifts. Her dark grey eyes were brimming with excitement as she tore open a box and took out brand new wand holster. It was made up goblin silver. The entire body was etched with various runes that decorated the masterpiece along with supplying it power. She quickly wore it on her right arm and attached her wand to it. The whole apparatus glowed for a while and then returned to its former state, now resized to fit Suzannah's arm perfectly.

"Wicked! I will finally be able to give Marcus a run for his money in our usual duels." Suzannah said excitedly.

"As if! You are a novice at best when it comes to duelling. Marcus doesn't have to raise his wand to beat you. Claudia scoffed at her niece's statement.

"Whatever! A girl can dream." Suzannah continued the drama.

"Yeah right!" Claudia shook her head. Suzannah rolled her eyes at that. It was these small healthy spats with her aunt that restored some semblance of normalcy to her life. Otherwise, with the tight schedule of classes' day in and day out, Suzannah practically led the life of a timed puppet. The clock ruled her life. Her uncle, lord Marcus corvinous had hired tutors for his darling niece for every subject ranging from muggle sciences to etiquette to history to potions. He himself tutored her in the art of duelling. Suzannah had a keen interest in alchemy and wandlore. The professors in the academy tutored her in charms, transfiguration, basics of healing, potions and the wizarding laws and customs. Suzannah was a gifted child, in most senses to the word. She was the daughter of Sirius black, who was the scion of the most ancient and noble house of black and Sophia black nee riddle, the only daughter of tom marvolo riddle, best known as lord voldemort and Miriam corvinous, the previous head of the house of corvinous.

Marcus corvinous was the lord of the house of corvinous ever since the death of his mother, Lady Miriam around 32 years ago. He was part vampire and part werewolf, the direct descendent of godric Gryffindor and Rowena ravenclaw. Suzannah was seven years old when she nearly died from falling off a cliff into the sea. Marcus gave her his blood to save her life and thus named her his heir by default.

After finishing their dinner, the two ladies parted ways. Claudia went to the staff room for the staff meeting while Suzannah checked her packing for the 5th time since the last week. She opened the remaining presents that were transferred to her rooms and was pleased to find that apart from the wand holster, she had also received some of the books that she had been itching to read since the past year. The huge book on magical herbs and fungi was the encyclopaedia of all the magical plants. There were so many muggle and magical clothes in the gifts that she had to repack her trunk after expanding it to twice its original size to stuff them all inside. She was not taking any chances with Hogwarts.

It took her 2 very long hours to finish opening and arranging the bigger packages. After that, her attention shifted to the smaller and more fragile looking packets. Suzannah had learned it a long time ago that size of the gift could never tell you about its usefulness. She picked up a small silver wrapped box that was too small to hold anything bigger than a ring and as expected, the box housed the most beautiful onyx ring that Suzannah had ever laid eyes on. And mind, having grown up as a princess and niece to Claudia, who was very partial to jewellery, Suzannah had seen and enjoyed access to quite a lot of beautiful rings. This ring however was brimming with magic. The ring was made of goblin gold hand crafted by wizards. The large onyx stone was set on it had beautiful carvings that glittered in gold light. Below the ring, there was a small note.

 _My dear princess,_

 _Many many happy returns of the day. Please accept my apologies for my absence from your birthday. The conference in India will at least until November to be over. That means I won't be able to see you off to Hogwarts._

 _This is a very special ring Suzie. As long as you wear it on your right ring finger, you will never lose your way in any territory. No matter how heavily it is warded. I know about your apprehension regarding going to Hogwarts. Hopefully this little ring will ease up your worries._

 _I'll write to you as often as I can. But you already know that it will never be as often as any of us would like. But there is nothing stopping you from writing to me. So I better get at least one letter from you every week._

 _Take care,_

 _Marcus._

Suzannah slipped the ring in the correct finger. The ring resized itself to fit around her finger perfectly. Smiling, she resumed opening her gifts. By the time she was finished, the shelves in her room and the desk were full of little trinkets and sweets. Her walk in closet was overflowing with clothes, both wizard and muggle. She had to transfer all her stuff to a bigger trunk as the former trunk could not hold all the stuff. Her new trunk had seven large compartments, specially designed for holding clothes, shoes, bags and accessories, potion ingredients, magical instruments, books, parchment and quills and other miscellaneous stuff respectively. It was well past midnight when she finished repacking. She changed into her night clothes and went to bed. Tomorrow would be a long day.

The next morning Suzannah was roused from her peaceful slumber by Nancy the elf who was carrying a tray of fruits and a glass of fresh lemonade.

"Nancy wishes young mistress a very happy birthday." The elf bowed and after setting the morning snacks on the table, vanished with a small 'pop'.

Suzannah stretched in her bed and checked the time in the table clock on her bedside table. It was 5 am sharp. Smiling at her elf's efficiency, she hopped out of bed and went to the bathroom for her morning rituals. She came out 15 minutes later, fully awake and completely clean. She ate her fruits in silence and then drank her lemonade. At 5.30 am, Suzannah made her way to the castle's gym and began her daily workout. After 2 hours of training exercises, Suzannah returned to her rooms and got ready.

After a quiet breakfast, she went to the library where Claudia was waiting for her. She found her aunt in the very back of the library, effectively hidden from direct line of sight by the rows and lines of books and tomes, some of which were long thought lost to time.

Claudia was sitting on a sofa, reading a large book. Glancing up from her reading, she smiled at her niece and gestured her to take a seat beside her. Suzannah obliged and took the offered seat, without a word.

"I received a message from the headmaster. He says that the school will start on 1st of September. You will be leaving via portkey tonight. It will take you straight to a cottage Marcus has rented in the diagon alley. Nancy will accompany you and stay there till the end of the holidays. I have set up a vault in your name in gringotts. The money should suffice for the year. You will receive your Hogwarts letter and the list of required supplies in the coming week. Should I trust you to buy all the required equipment responsibly and take care of yourself?"

Suzannah continued staring at her aunt for a complete minute before replying. "I think so. Marcus gifted me this ring that will help me find my way around the alley. And I will have Nancy with me. So I should be fine. Plus it's not like I'll be going anywhere outside the alley."

"True. But you have to promise me that you'll not venture into the muggle world. You may visit and adjoining magical sites but no muggle London till 1st of September." Claudia said. Then, her expression softened, "Suzie you have to understand that I don't want you to get in any trouble, especially when I won't be there to help you out. You know I desperately wanted to come with you. But the fort will need strict supervision this month, what with entrance tests starting for the upcoming session next week. Please promise me you'll write to me at least once a week. It'll keep me sane. Please." Her eyes help a pleading look Suzannah had never witnessed before.

"Of course aunt, I'll be good, promise." Smiling, she hugged her aunt with all the affection she had.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: inheritance

Suzannah portkeyed to her new home for the summer the same night. The apartment Marcus had 'rented' (it was another one of the unsaid facts that lord corvinous never rented things, he bought them) was a cosy 3 bedroom flat over a large shop that hadn't been in use since quite some time. Nancy had immediately got to work, arranging Susannah's things in the largest bedroom, her own bundle of articles in a large cupboard in the kitchen and then preparing Susannah's bed for her to retire for the night.

Suzannah's room was quite small compared to her previous quarters. It had a queen sized bed in the centre, rosewood desk on one side and a 4-doored almirah on the other side. There was a small book rack opposite to the wall. It had some issues for the daily prophet, witch weekly and the witch broomstick. It was evident that Marcus had spent a significant amount of time here to make it comfortable for Suzannah.

Suzannah, tired and sleepy as she was, quickly changed into her nightclothes and went to bed. Sleep claimed her as soon as she hit the pillow.

The next morning saw Suzannah venture into the diagon alley for the first time in her life. As soon as she stepped out of her building into the alley, her onyx ring pulsed and she gained an uncanny awareness about all the tracks and paths around the magical shopping area. She instinctively knew the way around the alley. Stoking her ring with her other hand, she murmured to herself, 'I now understand what Marcus told me about the ring in his letter.'

Without missing a beat, she confidently made her way to Gringotts bank for wizards. On her way, she was impressed, and dare she admit it, a little intimidated by the crowd that was passing her. There were so many people around, all going on about their own business, without so much as a second glance towards her. Suzannah was used to the secluded and quite surroundings of her fort. Most of the people she had come across had always paid her due attention, be it her uncle or aunt, her tutors, or even her peers. The crowd in the alley was overwhelming her, although to any other ordinary regular visitor, the alley would seem in its moderate state. Still engrossed in her musings 15 minutes later, Suzannah found herself on the doorstep of the bank. Her nervousness was soon transformed into awe and wonder as she looked at the solid gold and silver doors that led you to the bank. The interiors were even more awe inspiring. The large hall was lined with high desks where goblins were busy with various jobs. A few were weighing precious stones while others were arranging piles of muggle money and galleons.

Suzannah took a few minutes to regain her cool self assured composure and approached a goblin that looked like a teller. Using her most formal and polite tone, she addressed the goblin.

"Excuse me sir, my name is Suzannah corvinous black. My uncle Marcus had recently set up a vault for me in your bank branch. I was told to approach a teller to access my vault. Would you please assist me?"

The goblin looked up from his pares and looked at the small girl for a few moments. Then resting his quill and papers on his desk, he said, "very well. You will have to participate in an identification test in order to prove that you are who you claim to be. We at Gringotts take the security of our clients' assets very seriously. Accompany me to the director's office for the test." The goblin got off his chair and led the way, without so much as a glance towards Suzannah.

Well aware of the goblin nature (she had taken lessons on various magical races, of course), she followed the teller quietly.

Director Ragnok's dark office was a stark contrast to the light ambience and clinking sounds of the outer hall. The room was very spacious for an office. Here, the walls were lined with a lot of weapons, swords, spears, hunters, knives etc. In the middle of the front wall sat a majestic desk behind which sat the goblin king, ragnok. Ragnok's was going through some long rolls of parchment. His large earthy eyes were slightly squinting as he read the papers through some kind of a magnifying glass.

As they stepped inside the office, the goblin king looked up from his papers at them. Dismissed the teller accompanying Suzannah with a slight tilt of his head, he gestured the awestruck girl to a chair opposite to his, across the desk.

"lord corvinous had given strict instructions that anyone claiming to be his niece has to go through an inheritance ritual before they are informed about the current status of the said vault are allowed admission to it." Suzannah nodded. The way ragnok's was eyeing her reminded her strongly of the times she had spent in the headmasters office back in her old school, mostly after she got caught participating in some mischief.

Ragnok's placed a large crystal basin in front of her, along with a long roll of empty parchment. He filled the empty basin with a brown potion and then dipped the parchment inside. Handing over a small silver knife to Suzannah, he said, "Allow 7 drops of your blood to fall in this basin. The potion will discern your bloodline and your true identity. We may also learn if you have inherited any other family names and fortunes."

Suzannah pricked her little finger with the knife and allowed the required amount of blood to fall in the potion before pressing the small wound with her other hand so as to stop any further bleeding. As soon as the 7th drop made contact with the potion's surface, the colour of the potion changed, first to bright yellow, then blue and finally it rested after several fluctuations on violet. Ragnok carefully pulled out the parchment from the potion. Surprisingly, the potion did not dissolve the paper into it. He read the paper once and handed it over to the little girl sitting before him, without betraying any emotion on his face.

Suzannah nervously accepted the offered parchment and read it. Her eyes widened the moment she reached the second section.

 _ **Suzannah Miriam Merope Corvinous Riddle Black**_

 _ **Date of Birth: July 13, 1980**_

 _Father's Name: Sirius Orion Black_

 _Mother's Name: Sophia Merope Black nee Riddle_

 _ **INHERITANCE**_

 _Heiress to the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black – by blood_

 _Heiress to the Royal House of Corvinous – by magic_

 _Heiress to the House of Godric Gryffindor – by magic via House of Corvinous_

 _Heiress to the House of Rowena Ravenclaw – by magic via House of Black_

 _Heiress to the House of Salazar Slytherin – by blood_

 _Heiress to the House of Peverell – by blood_

 _ **MAGICAL ABILITIES**_

 _Parseltongue_

 _Occlumency_

 _Legilimency_

She read the document several times. This can't be right. She had already known that she would inherit the black family fortune someday. And Marcus had once explained her that unless she forwards the title to his future children willingly, she would be the scion of corvinous house as well. But, the rest of the names on the list were quite a lot for her to understand. She slowly looked up from the paper and found ragnok's regarding her quietly. Mustering all her manners and self control, she said, "I understand the presence of the corvinous and black family names here. But would you please explain the other ones?"

"Apparently, miss ...black, lord corvinous is also a descendent from the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw lines. And the late lady black, had inherited the Slytherin and Peverell lines from her father. Since neither she, nor you maternal grandfather has any records in our archive, I merely say this on the basis of speculation. As I am fairly certain that lord black did not inherit Slytherin or Peverell lines after his mother's deaths 5 years ago. Also, since lord black is currently serving sentence and there you are the sole heiress to Slytherin, you enjoy full access to both the black family vault and the Slytherin vault along with your trust vault."

"Please address me as miss riddle. I prefer my mother's maiden name over my father's family name." Suzannah replied in a grave and calculating tone. "I would like to visit my vaults and I would appreciate it a lot if I could meet you tomorrow in order to settle any remaining concerns regarding my account. The information I have learned today will take at least a day to sink in. I hope you understand."

"That should be easily manageable." Ragnok rang a bell and immediately a goblin entered the room to escort Suzannah to her vaults. Suzannah visited her vaults for the first time in a daze. She filled her money bag with galleons from her trust vault, took a stroll each though her other 2 vaults, without withdrawing anything and returned to the over ground level 2 hours later. She quickly instructed her family vault manager to withdraw the right from anyone but herself to visit the vaults. On her way back, she decided to spend her day outdoors, exploring the alley. She quickly summoned Nancy and instructed her to not cook any lunch for her that day and made her way into the first shop that caught her attention. The shop's name was _"OBSCURUS BOOKS"_. The shop's exterior was quite rickety. It was clear from the looks of it the shop was sparingly visited by the British magical folk.

Standing outside the shop, Suzannah briefly wondered what Claudia would say if she learned that she was going in a dangerous looking place for mere excitement. Most probably, she would ground her for the rest of the summer. 'Oh well, she is not here anyway. What the mind doesn't know, the heart doesn't grieve over.' Taking a deep breath and grinning with excitement, she pushed open the door of the shop. For once, Suzannah black was behaving like a normal child, a normal 11 year old.

The shop seemed to be empty at first look. Suzannah stepped inside the shop and her ring immediately activated. She learned that just like her apartment, this shop also had a flat over it. The shop was in poor condition. But it was fairly clean and well kept. The walls were lined with long and high book cases. Just like the library in her fort, the book cases were arranged according to the subjects of the books. She casually began browsing through the tomes. The books were fairly old and did the shop's name justice. Some of the tomes were quite rare and advanced. Within 5 minutes, she was so thoroughly taken by the collection of books, that she didn't notice a tall and dark old man enter the shop through the stairs from the flat.

"You will regret it if you even think about shoplifting." He said in gruff voice that startled Suzannah so much that she almost dropped the heavy tome she was clutching in her hands.

She turned around to face the man who was threatening her. The man was in his mid 70s. His grey-white hair was tied at the back in a small ponytail. He had a very well built body for his age, and stood at an impressive 6 feet. His piercing blue eyes were scrutinizing her.

"I am sorry if I caused you any inconvenience. It was definitely not my intention. I was merely looking through these books and deciding which ones I would like to buy today and which ones I'd consider later." She said in a low tone. It was evident that the old man's warning had put her on her guard. Her eyes were quickly darting from one spot to another and her mind was forming escape plans and routes for every probable situation.

The man eyed her for another minute quietly before pointing towards a wooden chair, gesturing her to sit. He took the books Suzannah had shortlisted from the pile and kept them on his counter.

"And why does a little girl like you want books on mind arts and ancient magical languages?" Suzannah blushed and looked down. Her expression matched that of a very mischievous child who has been caught red handed.

"My aunt has promised to teach me occlumency and legilimency after my 1st year in Hogwarts. I thought that if I go thought the theory before the instructions begin, the practical lessons would be more fruitful." She didn't reveal her natural talent in those subjects for obvious reasons. And she didn't lie to the man as she felt that he had a right to know about her intentions regarding his books.

"And the tome on magical languages?" the man asked. His face didn't betray any ounce of emotion.

"Well, I personally find them a very interesting read. I recently learned about the existence of Celtic rune language and parseltongue's history for being used in healing." She promptly replied. Some of her nervousness was slowly leaving her and she was returning to her usual confident self. Her eyes were twinkling with innocence and excitement. The man's impassive facade seemed to fall as he permitted himself to smile lightly.

Kal Ogden was a very lonely old man. Ever since his wife's death 4 years ago, he had led a solitary life. What little friends he once had gradually distanced themselves from him. Some others that were still in touch with him via owl post were keeping busy. His book shop had been suffering because of his lost interest in anything and everything. There used to be a time when he was well known and appreciated for his knowledge and wise decision making skills. As is often expected from former Ravenclaws, his first love in life was books. His shop was once well known for housing the rare and obscure texts and tomes that would be hard to find elsewhere. Ever since Camilla's death, he had stopped travelling and collecting books. These days, his most common visitors were men from dark families, hoping to find some dark magic tome. Just yesterday he had received an owl from lucius malfoy asking him if he had gained possession of any new texts.

'Idiots, the lot of them. Inbred pig heads, think any and all rare tomes in existence are about dark magic.' He muttered under his breath as he made his way downstairs to clean his counter, only to find a small girl leafing through a book on ancient languages, a very interesting, stupid and innocent girl. And she was clutching the tome on mind arts in her other hand. It was time to get back to work.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: a life on line.

Suzannah left Kal Ogden's shop in a very bad mood. She had tried to convince the old man that she could handle the advanced material in those books. She tried to convince him that her fluency in Latin was only second to her English. She tried, in vain to tell him that she knew the basic histories of all those magical languages she wanted to read. He didn't budge.

Kal practically pushed the protesting girl out of his shop. Finally giving up, she made her way back to her apartment. Once inside, she called Nancy who served her lunch (5 courses with 2 choices for salads and desserts).

"I swear Nancy; the world is full of evil old and selfish people. I mean, why couldn't that old man sell me those books and get it all over with? He had to rudely push me out! For a moment there, I was sure I saw him smile at me." Suzannah was ranting.

"But I am a princess. If I want something, I will get it, no matter what." She was muttering to herself by the end of her meal. Finishing her meal, she decided to get her letters to Claudia and Marcus out of her way before working on her "mission" to get those books from the "snarky old man". She asked Nancy to get he some parchment and a quill and settled herself comfortably in the sitting area of the house.

 _Dear Uncle Marcus,_

 _I hope this letter finds you in perfect health and awesome mood._

 _I arrived at the flat in diagon alley yesterday post dinner via a portkey that headmaster had arranged for me. I found it quite odd that nobody was present to welcome me and help me get settled. But it was alright. Exploring the house was fun._

 _By the way, the ring you gifted me has been a huge help today. It helped me loads in finding my way around the alley and it even made me aware of the presence of the shopkeeper of a very ill kept book store. The man in question was equally ill tempered if not more. But that's alright. I had a lot of fun too._

 _My visit to Gringotts was quite enlightening, if you know what I mean. It was very happy surprise when I discovered my inheritance results. And the contents of my trust vault were equally surprising. Seriously, why do you think I would need 100,000 galleons to survive a year in Hogwarts? So far as I know, the school supplies won't cost me more than 100 galleons. But I am not complaining. In fact, I might go shopping tomorrow and spend a substantial amount of gold. It shouldn't be that hard, right?_

 _I will write to you again when I get my Hogwarts letter. I also wanted to ask you if I should buy another wand or not. Do reply. I miss you._

 _Your wonderful niece,_

' _anna._

 _Dear Aunt Claudia,_

 _How are you? I am doing fine here. Before you wonder, I did write a letter to Marcus and will send with Nancy before I ask her to send yours._

 _The diagon alley is awesome! There are so many shops and so many people! It was a little scary at first. But later it was very interesting. I visited Gringotts and if you know your husband, you won't be surprised._

 _I discovered a book shop that had very interesting old books. I found a tome on old magical languages and another one on mind arts. Tell me dear aunt, should I read ahead on mind arts before we start our lessons next year?_

 _Do reply. I miss you._

 _Your obedient niece,_

 _Her royal highness,_

 _Princess Suzannah Miriam Merope Corvinous Riddle Black._

Suzannah folded both the letters and kept them aside. She then used the remaining piece of parchment to make 2 envelopes. Her aunt had been a very strict instructor when she had taught her the correct method of letter writing. She handed over the two sealed envelopes to Nancy and instructed her to deliver them to her uncle and aunt. Nancy took the letters and popped away promptly.

Suzannah then cleared her work table and properly arranged the parchment, inkpot and quill on their proper places. Taking a deep breath, she changed her clothes into something more informal. She had earlier dressed in formal dress robes with her hair tied up in small bun. She had intended on leaving an impression on the goblins on her first meeting. Her plans were fulfilled.

She dressed in a loose dress robe that was both comfortable and inconspicuous. She would definitely blend in the crowd and nobody would notice the absence of an adult figure. She was about to leave for the second time when Nancy finally returned. She had successfully delivered the letters to Marcus and Claudia. On asking, she told Suzannah that Marcus somewhere in upper mountains of Himalayas these days. Claudia, on the other hand was busy preparing the fort for the upcoming session.

Glancing at the grandfather clock in the sitting room, she turned to Nancy and said, "I am going out. Its 3.40 now, I'll be back by 7. We shall have dinner an hour later. If I am not back by then, you should come and fetch me." Receiving a bow from the elf, she made her way out for the second time of the day.

Suzannah roamed across the alley all evening. She was quite tempted to buy herself a new wardrobe of acromantula silk dress robes from madam malkins, or a dozen books from flourish and blots, but that would just be a waste of money. She already had dozens of nice new dresses from her birthday cum farewell presents and she still had to finish reading her herbology book that she had gotten for her birthday, not to mention that there was her book on magical theory that she hadn't even started reading yet. Thinking of books, she was reminded of the morning. Steeling her resolve, she went back to the dusty old shop to confront the old shopkeeper and to make him sell her those tomes.

The streets were still buzzing about with activity. As she entered the shop, however, her mind was cleared of all or any smart comments that she was preparing on throwing at the man. Lying on the ground, in front of her was a shaking body of Kal Ogden. The old man was decidedly under the effects of some curse or poison. Dropping her hand bag, Suzannah rushed to his side and felt his pulse, it was very weak.

"oh no, please please please don't die on me! Stay there. I'll get you something." She pleaded to the man before rushing out of the shop to the nearest apothecary.

Banging a galleon on the counter, she demanded to buy a large bezoar stone from the man on the counter. The man quickly got her one, probably to get rid of the noisy kid sooner. Taking the stone and leaving the gold coin on the counter, she rushed back to the book shop and pushed the stone down kal's throat. After a few moment of strained breathing, his pulse reached a stable rate. Unfortunately, he had lost consciousness.

Releasing her breath she hadn't realised she was holding, Suzannah sat down crossed legged beside the unconscious shopkeeper and stared at him, as if expecting him to wake up anytime and push her out of the shop again.

Snapping out, the gravity of the situation finally realised itself on her. Panicking, she stood up and swiftly shut the entrance of the shop. She looked about frantically to catch anything that might clue her on the type of poison that was used on him. There were no signs of a duel, no struggle at all. It was as if the old man has manifested some poison in his system naturally. Or, she realised with dread, somebody had discreetly poisoned him, somebody who was clever enough to leave no noticeable marks.

She was no potions mistress, but extensive coaching on all things magic had left her with considerable knowledge of potions and poisons. Living in fort that was guarded by some of the most poisonous and vicious creatures had forced her aunt to train her exceptionally well in surviving poison exposure. Gaining her composure, she rechecked kal's pulse and after ensuring that he was in no mortal danger anymore, she summoned her courage and went to the counter.

She raided the drawers in search for some parchment and quill and got to work. She couldn't use magic to heal the man, the trace will be triggered and she would have to go through a lot of scrutiny. She couldn't sent him off to hospital, she wasn't supposed to know this man, and attempted murder cases area always complicated according to all the muggle novels she had read, and she had read a lot of them. By the time she made up her mind, her body was frantically moving about on its own, trying to vent off the fear and desperation. She hadn't realised it, but her eyes were flooding her face with a steady flow of tears.

That left her with only one option, as leaving the man to his fate was never up for consideration. She would have to treat him to enough health that he could go to the hospital on his own. And for that to happen, she would have to give him a proper antidote to whatever poison he was exposed to. Taking a deep breath, she summoned Nancy and set to work.

5 hours later- Kal Ogden's bedroom:

Suzannah finished her meal curled on the small chair. Nancy had served her dinner there itself. The elf had been a great help this evening. She didn't know she would have managed brewing the basic antidote for the old man in all her panic and stress, had it not been for the elf's assistance. The old man in question was till sleeping on his bed. Sighing, Suzannah got up from the chair and made her way downstairs. Luckily for her, she had managed to find a small book in the shop on healing charms and diagnosis. Nancy had been able to cast them with her elf magic and that had given her all the consolation she needed to feel confident that the man will survive.

She was currently sitting on a couch in the small and dirty sitting room with the same book when the flames turned green and a man stepped out of the floo, casually dusting off some of the ashes. Suzannah jumped out of her seat immediately and turned to face the man, her face betraying all the fear she felt.

The man in question was tall. He had black oily hair that was stuck at the back of his head. His nose was slightly crooked, as if broken. He smelled of potion lab. The man's name was Severus snape. He was one of the few people that still had any contact with old man Ogden, especially after the last war. Kal had helped him get over his guilt of joining the dark side and it was his and Camilla's never wavering support that finally got him to stop grieving the death of lily. They were like his foster parents. Although he couldn't really spend much time with Kal due to his 'Dumbledore' obligations, he made it a point to visit every time he had some spare time that didn't need accounting.

Mustering up her courage, she asked in a very level tone, "who are you?"

Severus turned to face the source of the sound. "Shouldn't I be the one asking that question, miss?" he replied in a very low and serious tone. His first guess was that this girl was a thief, but she was quite well dressed to be one, not to mention that the fact she didn't run away at the sight of him.

"I visited the snarky old man's shop this evening to buy a couple of books. To my surprise, I found him lying on the floor, shaking badly under the effects of a neurotoxin poison. It took me better part of 3 hours with the assistance of my elf to stabilise him and get him on his bed. He is still unconscious. So I decided to stay for the night and that's it." Suzannah spilled it all out. She was scared and she had no reason to hide that. The man in front of her seemed to be the type who would not think twice before tying her and forcing out the truth if she lied.

Snape's whole expression changed. "Poisoned, you say?" he rushed inside the bedroom to check on his old friend. He waved his wand and cast a few diagnostic charms. Satisfied, he turned to Suzannah and asked, "What did you give him?"

"I first pushed a bezoar down his throat and when the pulse stabilised, I fed him some basic antidote. There wasn't enough time to brew the specific potion and nor did I have the correct instructions with me." Suzannah replied, now slightly relaxed. She reached into her pocket and drew out a vial of blood. Passing it to snape, she told him that this was the sample of the poisoned blood.

"I think you might find it useful for his later treatment." Then pausing for a second, she raised her eyebrows at him and asked, "You are not the one who poisoned him in the first place, are you?" she bit her lip.

"Had I been the said individual, you would have found yourself either tied to a chair, under torture, or dead." Severus replied. A queer smirk was finally plastered on his face. Suzannah visibly gulped.

"Then who are you?" she asked finally.

"My name is Professor Severus snape. I teach at Hogwarts school." he replied in a low voice.

"Severus snape? You mean _the_ Severus snape? _You_ are the youngest potions master in the past 4 centuries?" Suzannah asked, all fear forgotten, eyes wide with wonder.

Severus snape was impressed. He had been on a teaching post since almost 10 years now but never once a student had acknowledged him thus, not even in Slytherin. Although he may never admit it out loud, he liked this little girl sitting before him.

"Indeed. Not many people realise that fact. And what is your name?"

"My name is Suzannah riddle black. I prefer my middle name to my last though." Suzannah replied, colour rising on her cheeks.

"Black? Any relation to regulus black? He was good friend of mine."

"Haven't heard of him ever. I was 2 months old when my father saw me last. He has never been one of my favourite people on the planet." Suzannah replied easily. Then realising what she had said, she clapped her hand on her mouth and drew a sharp breath.

"It- it came out the wrong way! I-I meant -"she stuttered and glanced around. "I think I should leave. I should return home. Nancy!" she stood up and left without another glance.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4…The Letter Arrives

After the disastrous first meet with her future professor, Suzannah locked herself inside the apartment for the next 4 days. Her aunt and uncle had replied in positive to both her queries. Her Hogwarts letter had arrived, only she hadn't yet mustered the courage to venture out of the apartment, or write to her family about her fear yet. Somewhere in her mind, the idea that professor Snape would judge her most harshly had settled in with such vengeance that the possibility of facing him again somewhere he is not obligated to treat her properly scared the hell out of her.

Nancy had tried in her own way to elevate her doubts, telling her of the tales she had overheard about Hogwarts, of the gossip and the colorful crowd she saw through the windows, but to no avail. She had finally given up.

On the 5th day, she finally made up her mind. Dressed in the most expensive and stylish (to the mind of an 11 year old) set of robes she owned, with her hair elegantly tied at the back of her head, looking as if she was visiting a very formal ball, her cold, indifferent mask in place, she finally stepped out of the house. Her first stop– the wand shop.

Olliwanders' interior was only a hint less dreary than that of the book shop. Instead of rows and rows of bookshelves, there were innumerable boxes all around the shop, stacked one on top other. Some were dark, some worn, some appeared fairly new. She was about to pull out a rust colored box to examine the contents, she only hoped to find a wand there, when there was movement right behind her. Startled, she turned to face none other than the wand maker himself, one Garret Olliwander.

"Did you find something there?" he asked Suzannah.

"Umm, no. I was just looking sir. I am here to buy a wand." She replied a little hesitantly, completely in contrast with her attire.

"Of course, of course! Why else would you be here now." He said in a mysterious tone. Suzannah knew right then that this would be a long day.

Her measurements were taken. And then the process of waving wands begun. By the end of 30 minutes, her arm was aching. After what seemed to be an eternity later, an ebony wand finally responded to her favorably. But it was still nowhere as attuned to her as her original wand was. She dared not mention her other wand to Olliwander due to the laws regarding ownership of more than one wand.

"Aha! We finally have a match, interesting combination as well. I usually make wands with a single core. But the wood from this particular tree was so incompatible that by the time I figured out the correct core; only one wand's worth of it was left. A very unique core is present in your wand, basilisk venom, powder of unicorn horn, and a feather from the ancient specie of storm phoenix. This is a very powerful wand miss black, possibly second only to the fabled deathstick." His grey eyes bore into hers.

"But this doesn't feel right yet. It's not resisting me, but I feel a little detached from it. It's like it hasn't accepted me fully." Suzannah said. If she was going to need an entire day to pick a wand, she would damn well spend it. No way was she taking anything less than perfect.

Olliwander frowned. "Tell me, miss black, have you been using another wand till now?" it may affect your bonding with a new wand." Suzannah tensed. She didn't have any idea what to say now. Lying about the wand would not allow for a perfect match and the truth might totally obliterate the possibility.

"I promise to not speak of it to anyone if this helps to find you a perfect match." Olliwander spoke, sensing her discomfort. He was a wand maker first and foremost. If finding a match meant bending the laws on occasion, then he would do so.

Suzannah handed over her wand to him.

"Rosewood polish on elder wood, and the core?" Olliwander held the wand reverently.

"I don't know, but a drop of my blood was used for the bonding." Suzannah's voice was barely above a whisper.

The only sign from Olliwander was a muted hum.

"I think a drop of your blood and a matching rosewood polish should do the trick." He returned the wand to her and got to work.

Suzannah left the shop 2 hours later, 20 galleons lighter and a wand richer. What really lifted her spirits was when Olliwander allowed her to witness the polishing and blood bonding in his workshop. She now knew the basics herself!

With renewed confidence, and her former mask back in place, she roamed the alley for the rest of the morning, catching a few eyes due to her attire and returned at lunch. Satisfied with the fact that no encounter with professor snape occurred, even during her wanderings, she declared the day a success and spent the evening reading. By now, she was almost done with her herbology text and planned on beginning the one on magical theory by the next day. She went to sleep that night with a smile.

The next 3 days were quite busy for both Suzannah and Nancy. Where Suzannah checked the school list and reshuffled her trunk, Nancy had the hard task of keeping her fed and hydrated and well slept. None of the books from the list were with her, but she decided on keeping her collection for reference. She had the potion vials, half of the ingredients and the equipment. This reduced her shopping list to uniform, books and half the ingredients. A chore she thought would take her a day at best. Crediting herself with a day off after finally making enough space in her trunk for school stuff, she spent the next day outdoors, visiting different shops, buying random trinkets, keeping her head low in her loose informal robes. She dared not visit the old book shop, who knew what the old man might be up to. The possibility of having to meet professor was also a potent deterrent. Instead, she visited the robe shop, and bought herself an expensive dress robe in pure acromantula silk in maroon color. The robe cost her 500 gold coins, a feat if there was any. After a night of complete rest, she was ready to take on the world.

The planned shopping day was just that- planned. She first went to madam malkin's and got fitted for school robes, then to flourish and blots and bought herself the school set. She also bought a muggleborn's guide to magic. An outsider opinion on the unfamiliar society would be an interesting read. Sending off the large parcel with Nancy, she made her way to the nearest apothecary for the potions ingredients.

The shop was by far the messiest one in the alley. The shelves had huge jars that held different ingredients. Suzannah was proud to find that she could identify all of them so far. There were a few other customers roaming around the shelves and filling different vials with measured quantities. Suzannah followed suit and was on her last jar with porcupine quills when a familiar voice spoke her name quietly right behind her. Startled, she almost dropped the jar. Catching her breath, she inspired deeply in the fragrance of mixed ingredients and turned around to face the one and only, Professor Severus Snape.

"Good morning professor." She greeted him with a tentative smile.

"Good morning, Miss Black." He replied. His dark eyes were scanning her face and it appeared that her façade of appearing calm was futile. The expression on his face was closed, but on closer look, one could identify amusement and a hint of curiosity.

"Looking forward to potions?" He gestured for her to move towards the counter.

"I am, sir." The smile this time was 100% genuine. "My uncle has told me great things about Hogwarts."

"Your uncle? Where are your parents? You should not be roaming about in the alley all by yourself. Come with me. We shall finish your shopping and find your guardians." He waited on one side as Suzannah efficiently paid the required coins and left the shop. It was impossible not to notice how the negligible color on her face drained the moment her parents were mentioned. He could visibly see her tense.

Suzannah was in big trouble now. She could not lie about her parents; professor snape could easily cross check her files. She couldn't tell him about her being all alone, it was a big risk. Mustering all the formal training she could in the fractions of second she had, she turned to him and replied in her level voice, "I have grown up with my uncle and aunt. My mother died few days before my 1st birthday and my father left us when I was 2 months old. My school shopping is done and my elf would grow frantic if I didn't get back before lunch. Thank you for your kind offer, but I am sure an accomplished master such as yourself would have much more serious things to do. Please don't let me keep you from them. I am sincerely grateful for your concern. Thank you, sir." Taking in a deep breath, she turned on her heels and walked away briskly.

Snape was surprised to see the girl come up honestly about her parents and their demise. Exactly who her true parents were was becoming a mystery he found himself interested in. The fact that a barely 11 year old girl knew how to handle a poisoned man, that she could brew a near perfect general antidote on first attempt, a potion only the very best 3rd years could keep stable, although Kal was still unconscious, the healers had told him that the preliminary first aid he was given had saved his life. The poison he was given was very lethal. That she had never heard of regulus black but evidently knew her father's identity opened a whole can of worms. Her reluctance to lead him to her guardians was not lost on him either, neither was the large bag of coins she had pulled out of her robes to pay inside the shop. It was time to exercise his powers as a head of house and get a look on the file of one Suzannah Riddle Black. Making a resolve, he left for the castle with a quite pop of apparition.

Clutching her purchases to her chest as tightly as she could, Suzannah resisted the urge to run as fast as her feet could carry her. Instead, she focused on keeping her back straight, her face impassive, her pace constant and her eyes focused on her destination. No matter how hard she tried, however, her heart was throbbing so fast in her chest that she could hear her heart beat in her ears. What was that! She was this close to revealing that she was staying all alone in a apartment with nobody but an elf for company. Had he discovered, what would have happened? Would he take her to Hogwarts early, would her acceptance to Hogwarts be cancelled? Would she have to go back to the fort? Would the ministry take her and put her in jail? She was still engrossed in her thoughts when she reached the apartment. When she was having lunch, it occurred to her that she had forgotten to pick her uniform from the robe shop. By now, getting a book having in depth detail on wizarding laws also seemed to be a good idea.

She remembered the gods, steeled her nerves and gave Nancy strict instructions to get her back if she didn't return in one hour. Suzannah black made her 2nd trip outside that fateful day.

Her package was ready when she reached the robe shop. In the book shop, she bought the thickest and the biggest volume of wizarding laws she could find, gaining a few curious stares from the people around her. For once, she didn't care.

Severus snape was in a very foul mood. Minutes before he read the student files, an owl was received by him informing him that Kal had woken. He had opened the file in a satisfied mood, only to lose his temper after reading the name of Suzannah Black's father. Right now, he was sitting across the headmaster in the round office.

"Black has a daughter. You were aware of this?" his dark eyes were burning with accusation, although his tone was merely inquiring.

"Young Suzannah will be starting Hogwarts this year, yes I am aware." Dumbledore's blue eyes were twinkling. "I am surprised that you know about her. Sirius's wedding was a very secret affair. I was ashamed when he told me about the separation. Sophia was a lovely woman."

"I met the girl today in diagon alley. She was buying her potions ingredients for school." Snape replied. Finally losing his calm, he stood up looked at the bearded man with such intensity that would have a lesser man trembling. "Tell me headmaster, why is it that an 11 year old girl would be shopping for her school supplies all by herself? Why is it that she was reluctant to take me to her guardian when I asked her? Why do you think she was able to brew a basic antidote and save Kal that day when my best 4th years have problem keeping the cauldron from melting with that potion? Who exactly are her guardians?"

The twinkle had long left Dumbledore's eyes. His expression turned grave. He consciously drew a deep breath, closed his eyes, exhaled through his mouth and then looked at his young professor.

"I had word from her aunt that she would be staying in the alley for the duration of the vacations with her elf in a family property. I was assured that Suzannah is capable of taking care of herself. She didn't have a guardian around, Severus. Probably that's why she was reluctant. As for her skills in potions and the identity of her guardians, she is the heiress apparent of the royal house of Corvinous. Her guardians are her uncle Lord Marcus Corvinous and Lady Claudia."

"Please excuse me headmaster." Saying this, Severus Snape left the office with more information than he bargained for.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5- Welcome to Hogwarts…

The rest of the summer vacations were spent combing through all the books she had, learning everything and anything. The tome on wizarding laws was a godsend to her paranoid mind, but it was a cause of worry for the poor elf who had the task of keeping her fed and watered.

On the fateful day of September 1st, Suzannah black was up and packed and ready for her train ride to Hogwarts by 9 am. After a hearty breakfast from Nancy's kitchen, she gathered her things and floo-ed over to platform 9 and 3 quarters; Nancy appeared a moment later. Leaving her things in her trusty elf's care, she hung her handbag around her shoulders and went for a stroll around the platform. The place was empty. Not many people wanted to arrive 2 hours before the departure time of the train. There was a small sweet shop near the opposite end of the platform. By the time she went back to her initial spot, the platform had started filling up with people. Nancy had already placed her trunk in an empty compartment near the rear end of the train. She had expected Suzannah to board the train from that side itself. The train had started moving with a slight jerk just about the time she found her compartment. It was unfortunately no longer unoccupied though. Two boys, one with raven black hair and other with ginger red were sitting across each other on the 2 window seats and chatting excitedly. Suzannah was nervous. They could be older students; maybe they wouldn't appreciate her sitting with them or they could be her fellow first years. She discreetly spied on their clothes; none of them were wearing uniforms.

After contemplating for about 5 minutes outside the compartment door, she noticed a few people were giving her odd looks, so after taking a deep breath; she pushed open the compartment door and stepped in.

"Hi. I am Suzannah Black, first year student. May I sit here? Nancy placed my trunk in this compartment." She said pointing towards her trunk which was placed on the top of the rack. And sure enough, her dark trunk was there. The two boys looked at her, blinked, and then looked at her trunk, then at each other. They seemed to be talking to each other silently. Finally the black haired boy shrugged and turned to look at her again. Suzannah noticed he was wearing very baggy and old clothes. His hair was messy and directed in all directions, as if they hadn't had the fortune of meeting a comb, ever. His eyes were a startling shade of emerald green.

"Yeah, sure, he is Ron Weasley and I am Harry Potter." He said. Suzannah raised her eyebrows at his name but remained mum. She calmly took a seat by the racks and got comfortable with her potions textbook. The boys resumed their chatter about Quiditchh and other stuff. About an hour into her reading, Ron interrupted her.

"Classes haven't started yet. Why are you reading ahead?" he was wearing a frown that expressed his confusion. It appeared that he was completely foreign to the idea of preparing.

"I am reading ahead so that classes are less challenging. Moreover, it's not like I can spend this time doing anything else. I am not sleepy yet. And no offence, but your discussion about Quiditchh teams is quite boring." She replied in a level tone that betrayed her disdain. Of all her accomplishments and intelligence, Suzannah's biggest flaw had always been her arrogance. She had seldom met people who could match her.

Oblivious to her tone, Ron simply nodded and returned to his chatter. Their first interaction with a fellow first year was in the form of one Draco Malfoy. He was accompanied with two very fat boys who simply stood by his side and grunted in response to practically everything. She had read a little about the Malfoy family in her classes on political studies and ancient families. Marcus had few words to say about them. Ron, being himself, callously laughed at Draco's name and that opened a whole new can of worms. Suzannah's personal interaction with him was limited to polite introductions. She simply sat in her seat with her book open and observed with mild interest as Goyle's finger was bitten by Ron's rat.

A few minutes later, they were again interrupted by a girl with bushy hair. Suzannah was beyond baffled by her lack of etiquette. She girl had simply barged in their compartment and was now demanding to know all sorts of things! She even had the audacity to claim she knew all about harry potter from reading a couple of books on him. Of all the things, her air of superiority she had when she successfully cast a reparo took the cake. Any aware magical learnt that spell at the age of 8. It took all her self-control not to roll her eyes and scoff at her childishness. Apparently, the unimpressed expression on her face was enough to burst her bubble. She left with some irritating remark about dirty nose. Suzannah couldn't be bothered to even remember her name.

The boys had barely finished changing their uniforms as she stood outside the compartment when the train came to a halt. All the students shuffled out of the train and walked towards the half giant Hagrid.

Suzannah shared her boat with Jennifer Stuart, a muggleborn from a very rich and affluent family, Justin Finchfletchy, another muggleborn heir and Anthony 'Tony' Goldstein, the half-blood son of the famous wizarding lawyer Mr. Thomas Goldstein. The view of the castle was awe inspiring. For once, she wasn't bothered by the complete lack of composure. All the students shuffled into the entrance hall where Professor McGonagall briefed them about the house system and basic rules.

The sorting ceremony was a bit disappointing as far as Suzannah's expectations were concerned. She had grown up in an ancient fort where there was no shortage of enchanted things; a thinking cap didn't hold much interest for her. The ceiling of the great hall, however, that was the one enchantment that she was already planning on learning. She was startled out of her personal musings when her name was called for sorting.

"Black, Suzannah Riddle!" professor McGonagall loudly called her name and paused. Her eyes widened as if she had just realized something. Suzannah could feel a few stares on her as she calmly put on the hat and waited for the verdict. Nobody noticed when the eye color of the defense professor changed from dirty brown to red in a flash. Nobody noticed, other than the potions master how the headmaster had tensed at the mention of her name.

" _Hmm…you are a complicated one, aren't you? Though courageous, you lack the adventurous streak that defines every Gryffindor. Your fierce loyalty is only matched by your complete apathy towards people you deem unworthy. You thirst for knowledge not for the sake of gaining it, but to use it when the situation presents itself. Yes, it is your ambition that defines you. You will definitely do well in SLYTHERIN!"_

Suzannah was relieved when it finally ended. She put the hat back on the stool and calmly walked towards the Slytherin table, where the whole house was clapping and welcoming there first new student. The rest of the sorting went smoothly. She introduced herself to fellow housemates who replied politely. Other students in her year were Millicent Bulstrode, Vincent Crabbe, Tracey Davies, Daphne Greengrass, Gregory Goyle, Draco Malfoy, Theodore Nott, Pansy Parkinson, and Blaise Zabini.

After sorting ended, food appeared in front of them seemingly out of nowhere. It was delicious. Suzannah filled her plate with different dishes and ate her meal like she was taught. Apparently, her fellow first years already knew each other well enough to bypass basic introductions. Suzannah was too tired by then to bother initiating any conversations of her own. The dinner ended soon enough, followed by the school song and a cryptic speech of the headmaster. The 5th year prefects, Marcus Flint and Gemma Fay led them to the Slytherin dorms, explaining the basic school rules on the way.

Inside the common room, they were greeted by their Head of house, none other than Professor Snape. Any and all tiredness and disinterest vanished at the sight of the foreboding professor. Her previous interactions with the professor had taught her enough to know that it would not do to take anything he said lightly.

"Good evening students, and welcome to the noble house of Slytherin. I am Professor Snape, your head of house and the potions professor. A list of school rules is placed on the notice board. Go through it carefully. If caught, rest assured you will be punished a lot harder than any of your other year mates. Any intrahouse conflicts are to be settled in the common room, only. My office hours are available to you in case you need to talk about any important thing. Good night." And with this short speech, the potions master turned and left the common room.

"Alright, boys' dormitories are to the left and girls' are to right. You are all expected to assemble here tomorrow morning at sharp 8 am. Your first class starts at 9, so there is ample time for breakfast and getting your books. A prefect will escort you to your classes for the first week so that you know your way around, after that you're on your own. Now scram!" Adrian Flint sent them to their dorms with his own short speech.

The first year girl's dorm was thankfully large enough to house all the 5 of them comfortably, leaving a large central area vacant. The 5 four poster beds were covered in green bed spreads, there were windows enchanted to show the school grounds and the lake. Next to each bed were a closet, a low rack on which their respective trunks were placed, and a table with a chair. Suzannah quickly identified the bed farthest from the dorm door as hers and settled in quickly. After the usual introductions, she went to sleep.

They were all present in the common room at sharp 8 am. Even Malfoy, who had earlier seemed to be the type to not take adults seriously was present, impeccably dressed. The only first year not present was Blaise Zabini. His absence however was short lived as he entered through the main entrance not a minute later, looking slightly disheveled. Everyone's attention was soon transferred to professor snape who shortly followed him inside. They were handed over their time tables and each first year was assigned a 3rd year mentor.

"Your assigned mentor will be your go to person for the first term. They will be the people you go to in case you have any problem with settling in, any problems with your course work, or any disagreement with another student. It is expected that you respect them as your seniors and not take undue advantage of them, thus allowing them some time to themselves as well. Class starts at 9 am sharp. Tardiness will not be tolerated at all from any Slytherin. Get going." This was the morning after short speech by the prefects. Suzannah's assigned mentor was Adrian Flint. He was a member of the Quiditchh team and an all-round average student.

They quickly made their way to the great hall and took their seats for breakfast. It was then that questions started pouring out about her. Suzannah was seated next to her mentor and on her other side was Daphne Greengrass. Across from her sat Draco Malfoy and Theodore Nott.

"So, you from the main line of blacks?" it was the most abrupt conversation starter Suzannah had ever witnessed. The question came from Nott, whose attempt to appear nonchalant was quite well practiced…for a novice.

A smile was tugging at her lips. "Actually I am the heiress to the house of black." She could actually sense that their small group had the attention of a lot of people sitting nearby. She gracefully turned to face Adrian and began an innocent conversation about the theory behind leviation charm. The 3rd year was too taken aback by her casual declaration to realize the blatant change in topic.

"But the last lord Black is Sirius Black. For you to be heiress, it would mean he is your father. Strange, never would have pegged you for the daughter of a mass murderer." Daphne said with a challenging smirk. It was a test that much was obvious.

Smirking back, Suzannah looked at her right in the eye and said in a calm tone, "My father has supposedly murdered 13 people with a single spell. He's been in Azkaban since past 10 years. You were what, 2 years old then? So of course, associating me with my father might have been a little difficult for you." Smiling sweetly, she resumed with her breakfast.

People returned to their usual chatter around her. Daphne however looked at her contemplatively. Suzannah finished her breakfast soon after and rose for her first class. Turning to look at the other girl, she extended her hand towards her and smiling genuinely for once, asked her to come along. The blue eyed blonde complied and together they went to their very first class.

Their classes proved to be a blend of interesting and downright boring. It was chore to stay awake in their history classes. The defense professor was a stuttering fool who apparently only ever talked about trolls. Their transfiguration professor was a strict teacher who had made it clear to them in their first class that any misbehavior would be dealt with strictly. Suzannah was very impressed when professor McGonagall turned out be a cat animagus. Marcus had once told her that animagi was among the highest forms of transfiguration.

The professor had also demonstrated her impartial behavior when two of her gryffindors had come late for the class. Their faces were a sight when she had reprimanded them on tardiness and lame excuses, though she suspected not many realized that the excuse was actually lame. They had then proceeded with attempting to transfigure a matchstick into a needle. Suzannah was the second person to achieve a result in the class after the bushy haired girl who was named Hermione. Although, instead of the simple change in color, her transfiguration was complete. This earned her 10 points for her house and a look of silent approval from her teacher. In all honesty, Suzannah was feeling quite smug.

She had already made a few tentative friends in her house in the first few weeks. There was obviously Daphne, the heiress to Greengrass estate. Her father was a member of the wizengamot, famed for his steadfast neutrality. Both the girls had decided on partnering together for their defense classes. They worked well together so far and also sat together to do their homework in the evenings in the library. They were soon joined by Blaise Zabini, the only son of the notorious black widow Samantha Zabini. He was a history genius who knew the story behind apparently everything. He also seemed to have a curious streak a mile wide.

Suzannah was seldom approached by any other students, classmates and seniors alike, most probably due to her father's reputation. So far, she didn't have any problem with that.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6- The Professor…

It was amazing how fast the week had gone. Suzannah was finally completely settled in her new school. Flint, her mentor had been impressed with her first assignments and deemed her self-sufficient to work on her homework on her own. They had worked out a schedule that if Suzannah followed the goals set by him for the decided time, he would treat her to sweets of her choice from Hogsmeade. Her first task was to earn net 20 points for Slytherin in the first 2 weeks. It was going pretty well so far, she had already earned 10 and 5 points in transfiguration and charms respectively. They had set the stakes on Monday and it was Friday now, 5 more points to go.

Their first class on Friday was double potions with Gryffindors, followed by herbology and then lunch. They later had history as the last class for the day.

The slytherins and gryffindors reached the classroom at around the same time. They entered the dark room with fumes emanating from a cauldron sitting at the far corner of the large room. They shuffled and settled in their seats with a little bit of disagreement. Daphne had promised to partner with Tracey for this class, so Suzannah made a beeline for Blaise's desk. She had just sat down when the door to the classroom opened again to reveal Professor Snape, clad in black robes, billowing behind him. He strode to the front of the classroom, his signature frown present on his face. Suzannah noticed as his eyes roamed the entirety of the class, linger momentarily on Harry Potter, and his expression turned into a proper scowl. His gaze then landed on her, caught her eye and left in a moment, without any outward sign of recognition.

He moved around the classroom, and gave a scary yet interesting speech about the merits and powers of proper potion brewing. It was nothing short of miraculous how the entire class listened to him with rapt attention, she noticed with no small amount of incredulity that Granger was actually taking noted on the speech!

He then moved on to taking their attendance. As he reached her name, Suzannah expected at least a sliver of response, she was hopeful that the professor remembered her from their previous encounters…she was disappointed with the lack of any reaction. The professor however did pause on Potter's name, only to acknowledge his "celebrity" status with no small amount of scorn laced in his tone. It seemed he had a not so positive interest in Harry, as he immediately followed his attendance taking with a rapid onslaught of questions at the confused boy.

It was pity really that harry could not answer even a single one of them. The natural source of bezoar was given in the first chapter, for merlin's sake! And difference between monkshood and wolfsbane, it was something she had known since she was 5! The only mildly interesting question was the first one, which was also presented as an example in the 3rd chapter of their textbook. It was no wonder the professor was slowly losing his temper. Potter's feeble attempt at humor with that misplaced cheek definitely did not earn him any points with the potion's master. After deducting 5 points from potter for not preparing for his class, which was accompanied with quite a few jabs at talentless fame and idiocy, he turned to face the rest of the class; completely ignoring Granger's raised hand. His obsidian eyes landed on Suzannah next, his sneer from before still present, but there was a hint of something in his eyes which did not quite match the rest of his face.

"Miss Black, perhaps you would know the answers to these questions?" his tone left no room for doubt in her mind that if she didn't answer correctly, she'd be in grave danger of getting harvested for ingredients.

She took a deep breath to steady her nerves; it was the first time a teacher had called on her to answer a question. She could already feel the eyes of all the children on her, as well as she could feel her own face heating up.

"Sir, root of asphodel and infusion of wormwood when mixed in said order would make the initial steps of brewing the drought of living death, when in reverse order would make the key part in dreamless sleep potion. A bezoar can be naturally found in the stomach of a goat, it works as an antidote to most poisons. There is no difference between monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant. It is also called aconite in some regions." She never broke her eye contact with the professor. The thing that used the majority of her concentration was maintaining a level tone that did not sound disrespectful.

Snape's expression improved slightly.

"Well, why aren't you all writing this down?" and instantly, there were quills scratching all around.

"Miss Black, you will be sitting next to Mr. Longbottom for the rest of the year. Miss Jones, move next to Mr. Zabini." It was evident to Suzannah by now that the professor definitely remembered. He obviously didn't appreciate her running away act both the times and was now indirectly punishing her. In the past week, Suzannah had heard it from a lot of people that Neville Longbottom was hopelessly weak wizard. She'd definitely fail any paired assignments this way. Morosely, she still complied with the order, not daring to look at Blaise. She was sure he did not appreciate the changing of partners.

She greeted the timid boy tentatively, smiling a little. The boy looked positively terrified of her for some reason at first, probably due to the familial connection. Meanwhile, the professor was describing the boil cure potion to the class. With a wave of his wand, the instructions appeared on the board. They were told to begin brewing their own potions. It was thankfully a solo assignment. Suzannah was just about to follow Neville to the supply cabinet when the professor handed her a slip of parchment.

Puzzled, she looked at the professor with confused expressions. He looked back at her with something akin to…satisfaction? "You will brew this potion. Use your textbook if required." with that, he sweeped back to his seat. Suzannah was still standing there, with a now opened chit when Neville returned with his arms full of ingredients.

"Uh, do you want me to get yours too?" he asked in a timid voice.

"No, I'm going now." She replied and clutching the parchment in her hand, she moved out of her seat. She suddenly paused, turned around to see her partner turn on the flame beneath his cauldron. "Longbottom, I think you'll find better success if you prepare your ingredients first, then read through the directions and _then_ begin the actual brewing." And then she left for the supply cabinet without waiting for a response.

She returned with her own ingredients a few minutes later. Neville noticed they were not the ones required for boil cure potion.

Suzannah answered the unasked question while setting up her work station, cutting board, knives and cauldron, "the professor gave me a different assignment. Your horned slugs could use a bit more grinding by the way." She said glancing in his mortar. She did not converse with the boy the majority of the lesson, too engrossed in her own assignment. It was however a stroke of luck when she stopped him from putting the porcupine quill in his cauldron without taking it off the fire, "do you want to melt your cauldron that badly? Read the instructions for merlin's sake!" The poor boy was so terrified of her outburst that he actually read each instruction twice before following through.

But an accident was fated, so it had to happen, only this time it happened to Ron Weasley, the ginger boy who couldn't be bothered to read his textbook back in the train. He was apparently too distracted with chatting with potter that he put twice the amount of snake fangs in his brewing potion. The whole class was on their seats within moments, some were actually shrieking. The professor had been complimenting Malfoy for his brewing skills when this happened.

Weasley was given detention along with potter. They also lost 5 house points. Thankfully, nobody was injured badly. The professor resumed his rounds soon after. He sniffed ay Neville's cauldron, gave Suzannah a glare and looked at her potion. If there ever was a time when Suzannah was thankful for her severe coaching in magic, it was now, for written on the parchment that the professor had passed to her at the starting of lesson, was _Burn Heal Salve_. Adrian had graciously allowed Suzannah to look through his textbooks; she knew the potion was discussed briefly in third year textbook. Healing potions were not practiced till 4th year at least. She knew her assignment was harder than that of her classmates. But Suzannah was a Slytherin for a reason, her absolute ambition. Harder assignment from her teacher meant more progress; she was going to make the best of it.

The professor critically eyed her preparation area, the density of the fumes emanating from her cauldron, her work station's cleanliness; it was as if he was searching for faults. And apparently, only her desk warranted such scrutiny, as she could see across the class what a mess Goyle had made on his seat. It was pathetic.

"Acceptable attempt, Miss Black, you could have had better results on a few degrees lower temperature. Your ingredient preparation is satisfactory and work station organization seems alright. You will write a 2 feet essay on the properties of each ingredient used, to be submitted next class." he said the last sentence to the whole class, as they all shuffled out.

"Miss Black, you will serve detention with me for not focusing on your own assignment and influencing your fellow student's work." He added that as an afterthought, all the time giving poor Neville a look that could have frozen ice all over again. The boy practically ran out of the classroom, in contrast to Suzannah's resigned slower pace. There was dread and anger in her for the unfair treatment, surely the professor realized that she would have injured herself by not interfering with Longbottom's potion when she did.

Sighing, she packed her bag and moved out of her seat with a low "yes, sir".

Severus snape watched as his old nemesis' daughter walked out of his classroom after her first potions class. He picked up the vial containing the sample salve Suzannah had prepared and turned it in his hand. It was absolutely perfect. The girl was definitely talented if nothing else. He had expected her to at least throw a tantrum when he gave her a harder assignment than the rest of the class. She not only accepted the assignment without a word, she accomplished it excellently. He doubted anyone barring the Longbottom heir even realized she had a different potion than the rest of them.

After the encounter in the apothecary, and the subsequent revelations with headmaster, he had thought long and hard about the newly discovered Black heiress. His initial plan had been to make life miserable like that of potter, but only a moment after forming this plan, he realized this was the same girl who had selflessly saved Kal's life, with nothing but sheer skill and presence of mind at her disposal. This was the same girl who was so scared after merely mentioning her father that she had literally ran away that night. No, this girl had already proven to be more than just Sirius bloody Black's daughter.

But it was only when the girl sorted in his house, that he decided that this time, he would deal with his dilemma the Slytherin way. He would mentor the girl, once she has proven herself beyond any scope of doubt. He was determined to make sure that black's child will turn out as different from her father as is possible. He would train her to become the best she has the potential to be, a true Slytherin. The girl will grow up looking up to him for guidance, and wouldn't that kill several birds in one stroke? Feeling his mood elevate, he walked out of the classroom to his office.

Albus Dumbledore was a patient man, by his own standards. He respected that some things had to play by time. His great plan was after all, depended majorly on time. He was honestly a bit surprised when the rooster for this year's new admissions had the name Suzannah Black. He was aware that Sirius Black had married an Asian witch by the name of Sophia shortly after the potter wedding. His wedding had been by contrast a very hushed up affair, so many were actually surprised to see the black family name survive to this generation, specially through the main line.

Albus Dumbledore was also a very tolerant and peace loving man, by his own standards. So, when he discovered the nature of upbringing the young black heiress had, he had genially dismissed it as just a stroke of luck and accepted it without much qualms. What he wasn't prepared to accept blindly, however was that the girl in question had a very dubious middle name; _Suzannah Riddle Black_ was definitely related to Voldemort, he was sure of that fact. After all, the chances of another riddle being magical were laughably slim, with tom having already obliterated his whole family. With Quirrel acting suspiciously, the presence of another riddle in the school, the same year that harry was attending, it was a little too coincidental for even the wizened old wizard. He would have to keep an eye on the girl, that much was a given.

His musings were interrupted by the arrival of a midnight black owl through the window, carrying a black envelope. The bird dropped the letter directly in front of him and flew to sit on the windowsill. The old man opened the envelope after casting the general detection charm and deeming it safe.

 _Professor Dumbledore,_

 _From this day forth, I will be taking over the guardianship of my sister, Suzannah Black. Any and all correspondence relating to her is to be sent to me._

 _There are formidable wards around our family house, which do not allow owls to deliver letters. So, it has been decided that it will be entirely too inconvenient for Mother or Father to oversee her education and attend to trivial things such as report cards and permission slips._

 _Also, I will be visiting you in your office tomorrow for further discussing this matter with you. I wish for her head of house to be present for that meeting. You should expect me via floo connection at 10 am sharp._

 _His Royal Highness_

 _Heir Carlos Marcus Montague Greenwich Lupine Corvinous_


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter- 7: transition…

Both Severus Snape and Albus Dumbledore were present in the headmaster's office the next day when the floo turned green and a person walked in the office. He was tall, draped in a dark brown cloak. He had light brown wavy hair, woody brown eyes that shone with power. Even as he stepped out of the fireplace, any ash that stuck to his clothes promptly vanished with a casual wave of his hand, restoring them to their former pristine condition. There was no doubt in the mind of the headmaster that this man could be no other than Carlos Corvinous.

Carlos calmly walked across the office, without as much as a glance at the headmaster or the potions master. He went straight for a comfortable looking armchair and sat down as if he was the master of the universe. Only after he deemed himself satisfactorily comfortable did he spare both the professors a glance and began to look around the office and observe the trinkets in the shelves from his seat.

There were paintings of all the previous headmasters of Hogwarts covering the walls, at the opposite wall was a large book shelf filled with all sorts of books, some seemed to be interesting while some had outright ridiculous titles. Carlos' exploration was interrupted by the subtle sound of throat clearing in the background.

"Headmaster Dumbledore, it's a pleasure to meet you." Carlos turned to finally greet the headmaster. Without waiting for a response, he focused his attention on Severus Snape, who upto this point had been calmly waiting in his chair.

"You must be Severus Snape, my sister's head of house?" Both men shook hands.

Everyone took their seats.

"Mr. Corvinous, you wished to discuss the matter of young Suzannah's education with me?" after exchanging formal pleasantries, the headmaster wasted no time in getting to the point. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that Carlos Corvinous was an accomplished explorer. What many seemed to overlook was that he was the heir to the royal line of corvinous, the next lord corvinous. He was dangerous. And as the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore had no intention of prolonging his stay in the castle grounds any more than necessary.

"Yes I do." Carlos said to the headmaster.

"Professor Snape, what is your opinion on Suzannah's academics so far?" Carlos asked the potions master.

"Ms. Black has a consistent perfect score in all her assignments so far. Her house mentor Mr. Flint as deemed her capable of managing her studies and has started assigning her goals aimed at overall performance. It is my personal opinion that she is not being challenged enough in her classes so far." came the response.

"Hmm, as I expected. As Suzannah's head of house and her headmaster, you both must know that she has been trained in the basic theory behind magic and non wanded subjects such as runes, arithmancy and potions since she was 6 years old. She also started on her practical magic training a year ago. I have looked through the curriculum taught here for the first 2 years and I am highly disappointed in the history and defense syllabus. There is no history of the government system, no mention of dwarves, no history behind famous sorcerers, and no introduction to basic terminology. In fact, I have heard the teacher in question only ever pays much attention to goblin rebellions and recent history no farther than 100 years, no wonder she is not being challenged, I doubt many wizard raised children will find the class interesting. As for the defense post, Professor Quirrel may be a knowledgeable fellow but his stuttering is quite detrimental to teaching the students. The syllabus has no introduction to dueling etiquettes, the types of duels, the laws regarding defense and offence magic, no application based topics at all." Carlos said.

He had been waiting for the potions master to tell him of Suzannah's skill in academics so that he could gain a valid opening to express his reservations regarding the so called 'best magical school in Britain'. Had it not been a black family tradition for all the children to attend this school, Suzannah would never have set foot in this castle until after completing her masteries. She would have been tutored at the academy by the best teachers in the world in various subjects.

"Heir Corvinous, your interest in your sister's wellbeing is admirable. As for your apprehension regarding the Hogwarts syllabus and teaching methods, I assure you that more advanced and practically applicable topics are taught in senior years. The initial 2 years are sort of a foundation course to bring all the students from various backgrounds at par with each other and to get them familiarized with the magical society. Professor Quirrel is a very learned man who recently returned from a yearlong education trip to Albania. He has experience against various dark creatures and curses. I assure you that his speech problem does not affect his teaching ability." Dumbledore had lost his ever present twinkle. It was one thing being concerned for his sister but having doubts about Hogwarts's quality as a school was something he could not let pass.

Unnoticed by both the men, the Potions master suppressed a smile. He had spoken about quirrel's incompetency and the lacking syllabus with the headmaster every chance he got, to no avail. It was satisfying to see his concerns being shared by the corvinous heir. It was more satisfying to see the all-knowing headmaster having to explain himself.

Carlos smiled openly at the headmaster's response. "I am sure you know what you are talking about. But since my sister is not being challenged with her current curriculum, I insist she resume studying a few additional subjects as well, such as ancient runes, political science, economics, estate management, ancient history and basics of scrying. I will be sending her books and old assignments to her tomorrow with a note that she may approach either one of you in case she has any persisting doubts regarding her readings."

"Of course, I am sure Severus is more than capable of explaining anything young Suzannah has difficulty with." Dumbledore was more than ready to end this meeting now.

"So it's settled." Carlos nodded at the headmaster and the potions master and floo-ed away. Dumbledore was left with a sneaking suspicion that he had gained the short end of the deal somehow.

That same day, unaware about the meeting her brother had with her teachers, Suzannah had barely finished her dinner when a very upset Adrian sat down next to her, making no effort to hide his ire at the grey eyed girl.

"What did you do?" he asked as Suzannah finished her dessert. Startled, she shot him a clueless look.

"What did I do?"

"Why do you have a detention scheduled with Professor Snape in 30 minutes? And why am I summoned to it as well?" he wasn't showing it, but the possibility of him serving detention with the dour professor scared him.

Suzannah explained to him the events of her potions class the other day. According to Adrian, she had been a complete dunderhead for helping a dumb cub instead of focusing on her own work solely. Suzannah's counter argument that a spoilt potion such as that would have put her in harm's way was summarily dismissed. Adrian believed that professor Snape would have never let any student encounter serious injury in class. After staring at her mentor for full 5 minutes in complete disbelief, Suzannah dropped the topic. She was surprised that a member of the house that prided in cunning and ambition would disregard subtle self-preservation so completely in favor of petty house rivalry.

She promised to meet the 3rd year 10 minutes before appointed time in the common room and returned to her dorm.

Adrian Flint was the younger son of the flint family. His elder brother, Marcus would inherit the estate. He knew that since forever. He knew that as soon as Marcus became the head of the family, he would kick his younger brother out of the house with a pittance allowance and a shack to call home. He knew this because Marcus had made it no secret that he hated Adrian. Why? Well, that was one secret nobody knew.

To live a respectable life, Adrian knew he had to become self-reliant. He knew that only his academic records and his prowess with a wand would help him. So he worked hard for his grades, which were among the best in his year, he kept his nose clean, didn't get into trouble. He kept away from limelight, to avoid his brother's attention. Fortunately, his charge to mentor this year was Suzannah Black, a smart intelligent girl who knew how to handle herself. He didn't see the need to clean up after her. So he was a little more than worried when his head of house asked him to report to his office with his charge that evening.

The two students reached the door of the potions master's office just in time for their appointment. The older teen knocked on the door tentatively, and both entered. The potions master was seated behind his desk. He indicated towards the visitor chairs. The two nervous students sat down.

"Mr. Flint, you are no longer Ms. Black's mentor. You are not responsible for actions anymore. You are dismissed." The 3rd year boy left the office as quickly as possible without resorting to running, too relieved to wonder why he was no longer a mentor. It didn't matter to him either way.

"Ms. Black, after much deliberation, it has been decided that you are advanced for 1st year curriculum. Your brother was prepared to cancel your enrollment and tutor you personally, but the headmaster made him reconsider. You are expected to show up in my office for the rest of the week right after your last class is over. Your brother will be mailing you a list of assignments tomorrow in the mail. You will bring it to me during the detention. You will not speak of this to any other student. If you have any questions, now is the time to ask them."

Severus Snape was staring down the 11 year old. He didn't know how else to present the situation to her. He didn't want her to ask any questions. He had had a long day as it is.

Suzannah gulped. The Hogwarts curriculum, while not challenging, still demanded time for completing the assignments. The assignments Carlos would be sending were no doubt going to cut her free time. It was manageable, but not easy. She knew most of the magical theory by heart already, and was familiar with about half the spells to be taught this year. The involvement of Professor Snape and the headmaster was slightly worrisome, but she was sure she could handle it if any situation arose.

"No, Professor, I don't have any questions regarding this."

"You are dismissed."

Suzannah returned to her dormitory, sat on her bed and drew the curtains around her bed. Then, she put her face in her hands and did the one thing her aunt would have grounded her for. She screamed on the top of her lungs. Fortunately, the curtains on all the bed were spelled to silence the noise inside to maintain privacy on the students. She screamed again for good measure. After screaming herself hoarse, she closed her eyes, breathed deeply for a few minutes and went to sleep. It was no surprised that sleep didn't grace her till wee hours of the morning.

The next morning, as promised, a large nondescript owl dropped a large package at her table right after she finished her breakfast. The package was wrapped in brown paper and had Suzannah's name written over it in black ink. Suzannah lifted the parcel and was surprised to find it weighed less than expected for a bundle of books that large. Curiosity piqued, and it being the weekend, she simply left for the privacy of her dormitory.

She opened the wrapping to find a lone envelope sitting atop a wooden box. The envelope contained a letter addressed to her.

 _Dearest baby sister,_

 _First of all, accept my apology for missing your birthday, your departure and the summer holidays. I have enclosed a gift I hope you'll find suitable for making amends. My trip in India took longer than expected. The sheer amount of scrolls detailing early magical theory I found was amazing. Master Alistair is keeping busy sorting those out these days._

 _Mother has asked me to look after your welfare during your Hogwarts years as she finds it quite pointless and tiresome to lower the wards around the fort for every little report card and permission form. She of course will keep in touch with you over time. I think it is good news for you as I am much more lenient than mother. So, if you share the top rank with any other classmate of yours, don't worry, I won't hold it against you._

 _I assume your head of house has already told you about my meeting with your headmaster, so you already know the newest addition to your studies. Don't be upset little sister, but you are and always will be a princess. You need to be better prepared than your classmates when you finally graduate. You will be having responsibilities when you finally enter the adult world, as you can already imagine from the results of your inheritance test._

 _I am sending you all your books on these alternate subjects; we'll discuss and debate over them during the Christmas holidays, looking forward to then._

 _Work hard, make me proud. Take care._

 _Love,_

 _His Royal Highness,_

 _Carlos, the best brother ever_

 _Ps- keep the egg at a safe place and make sure to try talking to it every night before you go to sleep. It will help form a bond between you. Also, keep the egg a secret, not many people will recognize it for what it is, but those who do may not look at it in a positive light for you to have it._

Suzannah wasn't sure whether to be angry at her brother for sending her extra coursework and making it sound like her duty to study extra or be excited at the prospect of getting to see him more often and not having to worry much about aunt Claudia's exacting standards. In the end, she decided on focusing on her belated present.

She opened the box and was not much surprised to find the enlarged interiors. Inside was a stack of books she recognized as hers from back home, and another wrapped parcel. She opened the parcel and found the egg. The egg was large enough to just fit in her hand; it had a hard pale green shell with markings and etchings of what she assumed to be runes in different languages.

"Well, it could have been a racing broom; you can never be sure about Carlos' taste in good presents." Suzannah muttered to herself and stored the egg and her books in her trunk. She was soon joined by Daphne Greengrass in the dorm who told her that Blaise was looking for her.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8 – the gathering

As it turned out, Blaise wanted to talk to her about the possible secret hiding behind the forbidden third floor corridor.

"Suzannah, we are friends, right?" he asked in his most innocent voice.

"Yes Blaise, we are I guess." She replied uncertainly.

"Would you promise to not tell on me if I tell you a secret?"

"Okay…"

"I know what's behind the third floor corridor. It's a Cerberus! And since you are the second smartest person in our year that I talk to, you have to help me research it!" Blaise was grinning from ear to ear.

"What do you mean by the second smartest?" Suzannah's eyes were narrowed to slits. She obviously didn't approve. "And why do you need to research it? It's in the forbidden corridor anyway."

"I am the smartest, obviously. And of course I am not going to approach a three headed giant beast without researching it first! I am not suicidal."

"You did go exploring a corridor we were expressively told would guarantee a painful death!" Suzannah picked up her bag, "Let's go to the library, I need to finish me essays anyway." They walked out of the common room.

As they entered the library, Suzannah caught sight of Neville Longbottom, sitting by himself on a table. The poor boy looked lonely and his table was meant to be used by 4 students anyway. So she pulled Blaise along to his table and sat down like all was well in the world. In that very moment she had decided she didn't care about the house rivalry. She would befriend whoever she deemed worthy of her company and nobody else had the right to tell her otherwise. And if they did, well, she really didn't care.

Blaise was giving her looks that promised questions, she simply ignored him and turned her attention to the timid boy staring at her like she was an alien.

"Hey Longbottom, are you done with the potions essay? I still have to start mine. Can I look through yours? I'm not too good with writing essays." She added a smile for his benefit. Blaise was now truly shocked, but he kept mum and stood up to find books on his new pet project.

5 seconds later, Neville was still staring at her without any other reaction. So far in the school year, once it had been established that he was not good at magic, nobody, not even from his own house had started a conversation with him.

"Well?" Suzannah opened her palm expectantly. Neville numbly handed over his essay. She read the essay, drew her quill and stated marking his essay all over. By the time Blaise returned from the aisles, the whole essay had marks all over.

"Well, it's fairly obvious you did your research but were not paying attention. Here are the corrections, write it over again. And do add a bit more about ingredient reactions to complete the length." Suzannah returned Neville his essay and sat back on her chair with a satisfied smirk.

"Why did you help me?" Neville finally decided to contribute to the conversation.

"You are my potions partner for the rest of the year. Soon we will have paired assignments and I don't want to do double work just to get a decent grade. You need to improve in class and starting now; I have decided to help you with it. So every day after classes we will meet up here in the library to finish our homework assignments, I think if you get the theory right, maybe it'll help you with the wand work." Her tone brokered no argument.

"I'm joining you as well. This way I complete my homework on time and then have a lot of spare time for other stuff." Blaise was now officially a member of their study group now. Evidently, Neville's opinion did not matter. But he still nodded mutely and resumed his writing.

They worked in silence till it was lunch time. Blaise by now knew the basic anatomy of the Cerberus, Suzannah had finished her week's assignments and so had Neville. By the end of their first study session, the Gryffindor was smiling at his companions. Blaise lost his apprehension when Neville explained to Suzannah their latest herbology plant perfectly from memory without hesitation.

The trio made their way to the great hall for lunch talking among them, oblivious to stares they were attracting from students and staff alike. They parted after making plans to meet up the next day to research about the Cerberus. Suzannah and Blaise were given a wide berth on their house table by their year mates; they were officially the Slytherin outcasts from then on.

On the Gryffindor table, on the other hand, Neville was bombarded with questions. What did the snake want? Did they hurt you? Did they curse you? Nobody believed him when he told them the truth about their newly formed study group. He was quickly dismissed as a lost cause after that. Soon, Neville was missing the time spent in the library. It was quite like having friends for once.

That evening Suzannah spent her time studying her course books from Carlos. Blaise was quite disappointed in her of course. He went out to explore the castle some more. Suzannah was sure that by the end of the month, he would know the castle as well as filch did.

The next day the group met as planned in the library, with one addition. Megan Jones approached them about 15 minutes later carrying her shoulder bag.

The young Gryffindor 1st year had started Hogwarts like many other muggleborns, with hopes of magic and wonder to fill her days. But it took her less than a week to realize her life will not be a fairytale in this castle. Her fellow Gryffindor girls were either gossip queens who could only ever talk about the Harry Potter or the annoying Hermione Granger. She had tried to befriend the fellow muggleborn girl but it was not meant to be. Hermione was too stuck up with rules to even consider exploring the castle. On her own, Megan had already found the kitchens and she was a little too proud of her achievement to let another girl pull her down. She had wanted to befriend other students from her year but most of the guys in her own house were active members of the 'potter fan club' and it was frowned upon to befriend students from other houses.

That had been the status of things in the house of brave for…3 days when Neville Longbottom, the most unlikely lion broke the unsaid code and hung out with 2 snakes. And, in contrast to the tales told by old students, survived it with a smile! She had found the perfect group.

"Hi! I am Megan Jones. May I sit with you?" she smiled cheerily at the trio. Neville looked relieved to have someone from his house there. Blaise shared a look with Suzannah and motioned the still standing girl to the empty seat next to him.

"I'm Blaise Zabini and this is Suzannah Black. You already know Longbottom I think." He introduced them.

"Yes, I do. So, are we doing homework?" Megan was a little too nervous.

"Longbottom is completing his charms essay. I and Suzannah have already finished ours. I am researching a secret project and Suzie here is reading some arcane text in some weird language." He received a glare from Suzannah in response.

"First, my name is Suzannah. If you need to shorten it, it's Anna for short. We already have a Susan Bones in Hufflepuff, don't confuse the names. Secondly, I am reading the text in Sanskrit. It's an old Indian language and a lot of theories were written in it." Suzannah passes Megan a smile and resumed her reading. This was the last thing on her reading list and then she would be done for the weekend.

"Oh, great! I am left with only one essay on trolls, then maybe I can help you with your secret project. What is it by the way?" Megan flipped open her defense textbook and smiled at Blaise.

"it's secret! Can't tell you."

"not even if I tell you the way to kitchens?"

"deal." They shook on it.

Suzannah and Neville shared a look at their antics and resumed their work.

As lunch rolled on, the four made their way to great hall amid the expected stares. Thankfully they were left alone. Suzannah had a meeting with Professor Snape scheduled after lunch so she left Blaise in their common room and made her way to the office.

The teacher and the student were sitting across each other in the office. Snape looked through the books that Carlos had sent her without comment. Suzannah sat fidgeting in her seat the whole time. It's been only a week at school and she already had a detention in her record, in the first class no less! Now not a week later she was back in the same office. She had followed the schedule Carlos had sent her and already owled him the assignments. After what seemed like hours, Snape returned the books to her bag with a wave of his wand. He finally looked at the 11 year old.

"You have assembled quite the friend circle between Mr. Zabini and Mr. Longbottom. You are aware of Mr. Zabini's family reputation I assume. " just because he had decided to mentor the girl did not mean he was not enjoying the slight coloration of her cheeks that belied her nervousness.

Suzannah was a little nervous now. Adrian had already told her that it was frowned upon to befriend students from other houses even though the teachers pretended to encourage it. So, she did what she usually did in such situations.

"Sir, not many people want to be my friends because of my father's reputation. Also they believe me to be a half-blood so they don't want to be seen associating with me much. You saw how relieved Adrian was when you relieved him from mentoring me. I get along with Blaise quite well and we are friends because of that. As for Neville, he knows quite a lot about herbology and we tend to study together for homework assignments."

"And you haven't corrected any of their assumption bout your blood status because…?"

"Then they would like to be friends because of selfish reasons and that won't really be friendship."

"So you spend your time with the two people in your year who nobody likes so they would like you. Pathetic."

"Well Neville is the best in our year in herbology and he's really sweet and well mannered. Blaise is really smart. We also made friends with Megan Jones today and she has really interesting tales to tell about Greek mythology." Suzannah was getting angry by this point. Nobody ever questioned her choice of friends.

Snape narrowed his eyes at the girl but remained mum. He was quite unsure as to why the shenanigans for an eleven year old bothered him. Coming back to the topic at hand,

"Your additional assignments are adequate. I assume that this extra work is not compromising your class grade. If you have any query, you may ask me now or you may leave."

The following weeks passed without much event. The unlikely quartet continued to meet on weekends in the library for studying. By now Neville was comfortable enough to actively converse with the other three. Blaise and Megan were very excited about what the trapdoor might be leading to in the third floor corridor. So far they had discovered three different ways to get past the Cerberus.

It was in the first flying lesson of the year when their budding bonds of friendship were put to test. Madam hooch had barely given the signal for them to hover a few feet above the ground when Neville's broom decided to act up and after a few very spectacular and heart stopping rounds at a hundred feet height, managed to throw it's rider off. Neville broke his wrist and was taken to the hospital wing. Nobody thought it odd that he survived the fall with the rest of him intact. There was after all a strong possibility of him breaking his spine, or smashing his head. Suzannah was drawn from her musings when she heard the altercation between Malfoy and Potter.

Draco Malfoy had found Neville's rememberall and Potter wanted him to hand it over. She approached the duo with Blaise right by her side. Megan was right there as well.

"I think you should give the trinket to Megan. She is Neville's friend and would definitely return it to him when he recovers." Suzannah interrupted the argument.

"Of course you would favor the mudblood and the squib. After all, they are the only ones who'd associate with you. Merlin knows how you got into Slytherin with your blood traitor tendencies." The sneer on Draco's face was meant to be insulting.

Suzannah felt Blaise hold her hand as a comforting gesture. She in turn held Megan from her arm and the three of them walked away from the crowd. Malfoy and Potter were back to arguing as if nothing happened. Parkinson watched them leave with a satisfied smirk in her face.

"Why did you not say anything? Let go of me. I'll teach him a lesson she won't forget." Megan was furious. It was the first time anybody had insulted her on her muggle heritage. She had read about the prejudice but it did not prepare her for the hurt.

"Arguing with him would not have helped. Things would only escalate. Don't let him get to you. You know your blood is as good as any witch's. You know Neville is definitely not a squib. I love my family too much to betray them, so I can't be a blood traitor either. He couldn't argue against your claim to rememberall so he changed the focus to insulting you. It's a common tactic." Suzannah explained to Megan. Internally, she was seething in anger herself, but Claudia had drilled into her from an early age to never let anger control your actions. Besides, Draco Malfoy was her second cousin; she couldn't openly insult him without damaging her chances at building familial relations.

"Who do you think will cast the first spell?" Blaise whispered from her right, in an obvious attempt at changing the topic. He didn't want his friends to remain upset. Revenge plans were already forming in his mind.

"I really doubt either of them knows any working spells. It's a little ridiculous how they never skip an opportunity to argue with each other." Megan replied from her left. Before Suzannah could put in her opinion, both the boys were up in sky on their brooms. Potter did manage to catch Neville's rememberall in a crazy feint. He touched down to a crazier cheering from his house mates barring Megan and the Granger girl.


End file.
